• Europe’s debt crisis is more to do with badly managed public finances than fundamental weakness in the single currency system
• The Greek crisis has given rise to unease about the future of the euro
• This crisis was not caused by weakness in the single currency system but linked to badly managed public finances
• Greece has endangered the credibility of its budgets, but public finances in the EU are no worse than the situation in the U.S. and Japan
• Greece will need time to recover
• It’s not in Japan’s interest to turn away from the Euro
• Ambitious budget restrictions do not mean we will have to give up growth
• We share with Japan the wish to abolish FX volatility – perhaps we all need to go home then !
• FX volatility is bad for production and investment
• Euro still a strong currency – it was overvalued in the past
• Euro rate in conformity with situation